disintegrate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to separate into parts or lose intactness or solidness; break up; deteriorate.
The old book is gradually disintegrating with age.
-
Physics.
-
to decay.
-
(of a nucleus) to change into one or more different nuclei after being bombarded by high-energy particles, as alpha particles or gamma rays.
-
verb (used with object)
verb
-
to break or be broken into fragments or constituent parts; shatter
-
to lose or cause to lose cohesion or unity
-
(intr) to lose judgment or control; deteriorate
-
physics
-
to induce or undergo nuclear fission, as by bombardment with fast particles
-
another word for decay
-
Synonym Usage
See decay.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
disintegrationnoun
-
disintegratornoun
-
disintegrableadjective
-
disintegrativeadjective
-
disintegratoryadjective
-
nondisintegratingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disintegratesimple
-
disintegratessimple
-
have disintegratedperfect
-
has disintegratedperfect
-
am disintegratingprogressive
-
are disintegratingprogressive
-
is disintegratingprogressive
-
have been disintegratingperfect progressive
-
has been disintegratingperfect progressive
Past
-
disintegratedsimple
-
had disintegratedperfect
-
was disintegratingprogressive
-
were disintegratingprogressive
-
had been disintegratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disintegrate
Explanation
Soak your tooth in a cup of soda for long enough and it will disintegrate, or break apart from decay. The word disintegrate comes from a combination of the prefix dis- meaning "do the opposite of" and the Latin integrare meaning "to make whole." When something disintegrates, it does the opposite of become whole; it falls apart. Objects can either disintegrate over time — like a tooth soaking in a cup of soda, or instantaneously — like a building disintegrating into dust from an explosion.
Vocabulary lists containing disintegrate
The Lightning Thief
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Fahrenheit 451
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Farewell to Manzanar
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"You can't move a mobile home that's been sitting for 25 years. It will disintegrate," says Mountain Meadows resident Ben Moore, 35, who first moved to the park with his father in high school.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
“Only last month U.S. authorities said that it was illegal for countries to charge tolls on international waterways, so this threat may disintegrate when it hits reality,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
Language is malleable, but it has to retain some meaning, or the boundaries of our society will disintegrate more than they already have.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
Before it began to disintegrate, K1 was likely slightly larger than a typical comet, measuring about 5 miles across.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2026
Had the lab paused to direct itself at this obvious experimental goal, it would have been the first to disintegrate lithium, not a sheepish second.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
But if data disintegrates, he said, he would vote in favor of a cut.
From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026
In humans, the dental lamina disintegrates after we grow our adult teeth, but many vertebrates retain the ability to replace their teeth.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
He adds that if we sacrifice that commitment for A.I., “you’d get to a point pretty fast where it just disintegrates and becomes the ugliest definition of the word product.”
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2024
“You can see obviously it fails in flight, it spins out and disintegrates, and the impacts on the ground follow that,” said Crump, CEO of Skyline, a London-based strategic advisory firm.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 2023
When you kill a monster in Final Fantasy, it makes a sound like a groan and disintegrates into sand.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
The numbers are far from the peaks reached in 2011, when tens of thousands arrived in just a few months as maritime border controls disintegrated during the Arab Spring revolts.
From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026
Among other drawbacks, she notes, “films have disintegrated because preservationists can’t digitize them.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
Research commissioned by the government found that some non-plastic wipes failed tests on how fast they disintegrated, meaning they could still block sewers.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
Newberry’s five-and-dime store, she worked for a month and a half to pay it off in installments, wearing it for years until it all but disintegrated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
At once, the whole moth, already years dead, disintegrated, collapsing into a soft, formless heap of dark dust.
From "I'm the King of the Castle" by Susan Hill
They stored the item in water to keep it from disintegrating, marked down exactly where in the shipwreck it was found and placed it in a locked case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
The theater vanished into the green wormhole, disintegrating into a snow globe with the theater inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
So does he have the numbers and is he willing to move – particularly if it is harder for him to point to Sir Keir's authority disintegrating because there is already a challenger?
From BBC ● May 11, 2026
It is on its fourth cheese supplier, and still is trying to figure out how to keep the cheese from disintegrating while the shell waits for fillings like ground beef and yet-more cheese.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025
The old road was disintegrating, split, weed- sprung.
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
